Millionth renewable energy plant connected to E.ON grid

E.ON, Germany’s largest distribution system operator, connects the millionth renewable energy plant to its distribution system and celebrates an energy transition anniversary. The commissioned wind turbine is located in the municipality of Biesenthal in Brandenburg and will in future feed 6.8 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity into the grid of E.ON subsidiary E.DIS.

The connected wind turbine is a symbol of the energy transition: Whereas in the past a few large power plants supplied households and companies, in the future millions of decentral PV and wind power plants will generate energy. At least 90 percent of these decentralized plants will be connected to the distribution grid. For distribution system operators like E.ON, this means both growth opportunities and challenges: In 2022, the number of requests to connect to E.ON’s German grid will already more than double compared to the previous year. By 2030, this number could roughly quadruple to as many as 900,000 new installations to be connected per year. In line with the German government’s climate policy goals, this would require connecting an additional six million new renewable energy systems and distributed consumers by 2030, including at least 2.9 million PV systems, 1.9 million new charging points for electric vehicles, one million heat pumps and 2,000 new wind farms. In total, this would amount to 85 new installations every hour.

Power generation from wind turbines plays a major role in the success of the energy transition. Brandenburg is no exception, and it is where the network area of the E.ON subsidiary E.DIS is located. In 2022, the installed nominal capacity of wind turbines in the entire state was more than 8,000 MW, the second highest value in Germany after Lower Saxony. This is roughly equivalent to the output of eight large conventional power plants. Brandenburg’s wind power output is expected to increase by another third by 2032 and to double by 2040. The company operating the millionth connected turbine is part of the Teut Group, which has been planning and operating wind turbines in the region since 1996. The newly inaugurated wind turbine is located on a site owned by Berliner Stadtgüter GmbH, which owns and leases approximately 16,700 hectares in Brandenburg and thus contributes significantly to the development of the Berlin region.